Winter Will Come
by CatFromSlytherin
Summary: Ellie and Joel are back at Tommy's, but the food supply is low. Joel goes hunting every now and then. hoping not get found by the Hunters themselves. Ellie is worried for Joel's safety, and when winter does come, it comes hard. The people in the town starve, and try their best to find the food they can to survive. make sure to leave reviews, like, and follow! :)


Ellie woke up from a nightmare of clickers and runners just like she did every night, but this one was worse than others. She had lost Joel to a pack of vicious clickers. He had yelled at her from under the clickers trying to tear him apart to run, run back to Tommy's. He would take care of her. She ran as far as she could and as fast as she could. It was no use, they were faster. The runners. When another pack of runners appeared after she had turned the corner she woke up.

"Ellie? You okay?" Joel called from the other room. She leaned over and check the clock, it was seven.

"I'm okay!" She yelled back. She decided it was time to get up and help Joel. She got her clothes on and walked into the kitchen.

After they left the fireflies they had moved back to Tommy's town and were doing quite well. There hadn't been a break-in to the town in months. Her and Joel had been trying to start a new life, but there was something he wasn't telling her. She didn't fully believe him when he said there were other kids who were immune like her.

"Ellie." Joel sounded a little groggy, he had obviously just woken up as well.

"Yeah?" She looked up from her breakfast of dried deer and carrots.

"I'm goin' huntin' with Tommy, I'll be back later, and don't open the door for anyone except Maria." Tommy was his brother, and Maria was Tommy's wife. Joel looked at Ellie waiting for a response.

"Yeah, alright." Ellie ate more of her dried deer. There wasn't much game around here, and the town was on a shortage of food lately, so people have to risk going hunting without finding The Hunters. Joel grabbed his shotgun and started walking out the door before Ellie ran behind him and hugged him. Joel wasn't big on the whole affection thing, and was careful for who he cared for now.

"It's okay, we're going right around Tommy's. It'll be safe." Joel hugged her back and tried to soothe her. She nodded with her head still against his chest.

"I'll be here…" She let go and walked back over to the kitchen counter and finished her breakfast.

"Good." Joel waved goodbye, picked his shotgun back up, and walked out.

There wasn't much to do in this place, it was just a bunch of poor, starving families. Ellie was one of the few kids that actually lived there. She sat around most days reading her comics, she had basically memorized them at this point. Or she would clean after Joel who would leave messes everywhere. But the days when Joel went hunting were the most boring of all the days, because there was no one she could tell her corny jokes to, and no one to tell her they were going to make it through the winter.

xxxxxxx

"Hows the girl?" Tommy asked as he was loading his shotgun.

Joel sighed, "She's holdin' in there. She's really worried about winter comin'." He was loading his shotgun as well. "Is everythin' runnin' well 'round here?"

"Oh yeah, everythings working smoothly...and tell her not to worry about it, I will personally make sure you're both safe." Tommy finished loading and walked over to get the extra ammo. Joel chuckled and slug the gun on his back.

"Lets go, I wanna get back by dinner. Ellie will get worried." Joel walked over to his little brother

and guided him to the doors.

xxxxxxx

"Where is he?!" It was past eight and Joel still hadn't returned from his hunting trip. The door flung open, it was Joel. "Joel!" Ellie ran to him and grabbed the 3 rabbits he had shot.

"Theres a buck outside...I'll be right back." He dragged the buck from the back so the other families wouldn't see it. He dragged it into the garage and started to skin it. Ellie started to skin each of the rabbits and hung them up on the garage wall with the others. They were stocking up and only ate what they needed. There was plenty of grains and beans for the both of them, but they needed meat more than anything.

"How's Tommy?" Ellie finally said after the long silence.

"He's doin' good. What did you do all day?" Joel grunted, still skinning the buck.

"Cleaned mostly...re-read the comics."

"How many times have you read them now?" Joel asked, laughing.

"This is the twentieth time I think. I need to find more." She chuckled to herself. She finished hanging up the rabbits and started to help Joel with the buck. They finished after a long while and went back in the house.

It was a four room house, not including the garage and bathroom. Joel and Ellie each had their own rooms, there was a kitchen, and a living room. It was small but cozy. They had blocked up all the windows with wood to keep the heat in. There was a fireplace in the living room for cold nights, a one two-person couch, and a recliner chair. Ellie rarely ever sat in the recliner, only the days when Joel was working around the town or gone hunting. It smelled of his old leather jacket that he wore almost everyday, and the deer and rabbit meat he would eat when he sat in the chair and read the old newspapers Tommy gave him. Ellie cleaned almost everything in the house except that chair. They both wanted to keep its "authentic" smell and texture. It was worn out and the recliner was rusty and old.

"Have you seen the paper I brought in? Tommy gave it to me today," Joel searched around the kitchen. "It was from when the infected broke out. I never got to read it when it was published...here it is!" Ellie tried to guess why he never got to read it, Sarah, his daughter, was shot the first day of the infected apocalypse. He probably mourned for years, traveling at the same time, with no contact to the world.


End file.
